Temple at Pudu Ulu

Temple at Pudu Ulu

Kuala Lumpur has been dramatically transformed during the past fifty years by a large number of urban developments and small individual projects. Despite the rapid growth and development, it is important that the social, cultural and religious grounds are well supported for the urban communities.

The temple is designed based on the community's basic needs for spirituality in an urban condition, in offering possibilities for public inhabitation to establish a spiritual retreat.


The conventional temple layout with 3 smaller temples surrounding a main temple hall is used. This design approach takes the in-between spaces among these four temple halls and seeks to create an introverted contemplative environment within the temple ground. The massing of the outer temple halls is ‘linked’, raised and sunken to create an open courtyard ground that enhances a wider spiritual communion among the devotees.

The courtyards envelope a round rotunda main temple hall that is inspired by the Buddhist belief that everybody is a Buddha. It posits an importance to the centre, or one self signifying that everyone is always his or her own judge, and therefore is responsible for his or her own fate.

This plain exterior of the rotunda is celebrated inside, where lights are carved to wash into the temple ground. To create this lightwell, the conventional sections of Malaysian archetypical temple design consisting of 3 main sections were re-studied and re-interpreted. As a result, 3 light wells were formed for each aisle, bringing in lights in a poetic manner, and thus greatly enhancing the spirituality of the space.

The rotunda is slightly raised from the 3 smaller temples outside, creating sheltered space beneath as a place for meditation in the ‘courtyard’. It is also the cohesive common ground that binds all the temple goers.


The overall concept seeks to create an intimacy in the search for spirituality through immersion in nature and light. Through this, and the use of responsible vernacular materials, a relevant, poetic, and meditative landscape for spiritual cultivation within the urban context is thus being created.